ULTIMA Series - A Look Back + Memories 

Excellent retrospective of some amazing games indeed!

As a kid I played Ultima 8 and I haven't stopped playing RPGs since.

Damn, this is so amazing! What a review! Thanks for the memories, Ultima VII was the best game i'v ever play when i was young (i'm 42 now). So many sleepless nights to explore Britannia world! Raynald Bureau.

Love the longer videos. Who doesn't want more metal Jesus. Also love when you talk about older pc games .like hearing and getting a glimpse into things I may have not got a chance to experience. Now I can try some out

You and Carlos did a fantastic job with this video, and I would love to see more!

You should do more PC retrospectives like this. This was awesome. I love hearing you talk about old PC games.

This was an awesome video MJR! This one needed to be long... and you two did great!

As a 16 year old gamer who loves retro games just as much as modern games, these look freaking fantastic.

This is one of your best videos, I really loved it.

Hey ***** you left out Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle!!! This in my opinion is the best game in the series!!

Man, great job! I love this format of video, doing a full series retrospective. Keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing more like this!

It's always cool to watch your vids and see the games I gave you chillin in the background :D

I didn't think this was to long of a video because you two kept engaging. Great job putting this one together.

Great stuff, The Black Gate will always be my favorite. Love the map asks extras and Iolo is my boy

Your excitement about the material, and the chemistry between you two keep this video entertaining. Thanks for putting this together. More like this =)

what a trip down memory lane . Thank you so much guys !!!!!❤❤❤

I remember writing my own autoexec.bat and config.sys files for Ultima 7 :D

Yes please, much more of this kind of material!

So happy you guys did this video! Ultima III was my first intro to RPG's, and I was absolutely obsessed, even making my own graph-paper maps of the dungeons for III, IV and V. Played III and IV on the Atari 800xl and later V on the C64. Loved the music in III and IV as well. And yes...the covers to these games were so awesome Epic games, so influential. Thanks again guys!! (PS....LOVED the Laverne and Shirley reference)

Holy carp.... this video really brought me back to the first day a friend of mine gave me the book to Ultima V in 1989 which I read and re-read after school for WEEKS until I finally could get hold of the disks. I used to really dive into the whole world of Ultima, take notes and draw diagrams, write notes to my girlfriend in the runic language, stay up all night... play the music... truly live in the world... imagining the towne of Moonglow with its scholars looking into their telescopes searching for astronomical truth.... THANK YOU for making this amazing history of one of the longest-running game series of all time and definitely one of my favourites. Eventually I got U6 with that whole dictionary included in the box and that was the first Ultima that I finished. There were domestic animals and the world was more seamless without a transition to enter and exit townes. Ultima VII again convinced many of us to get mice for our computers although the graphics were still so slow on our 386 machines, and the level of interactivity (baking bread, realtime) was amazing. I had ordered Ultima IX online and somehow it never arrived at my house and I've been waiting for it for over 19 years!! BTW that problem you mentioned with the intro of Ultima VII with the Avatar stuttering in his speech--I had the same problem as I had just gotten a Sound Blaster Pro to play the game, and there was an IRQ conflict with the printer, causing the stuttering. Changing IRQ7 to IRQ5 (via a hardware pin) was my first real view into the computer hardware itself and a whole career... Thanks again guys!!!

D&D in the 1970s/early 1980s had a LOT of space/time travel and other futuristic elements in it as well. Gary Gygax and his co-designer Dave Arneson loved that sort of stuff. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was a D&D adventure written by Gygax that's a great example of that, and Dave Arneson actually designed his entire Blackmoor setting around futuristic elements (and this was actually the first D&D setting ever created by some accounts!) So in a way Garriott stuck pretty close to the D&D themes that were popular at the time. :)

Please do one of these for the Wizardry series!

Great video. I never knew anything about Ultima but you guys ran it down really well and I learned a few things.

Love the video! I've always known about these games but since they were a bit before my time, even though I love retro games, I may have passed them over entirely. Your passion for them however is what makes me want to play them now.

Someone else here with an age of 35 or older who liked the smell and atmosphere of the old video game stores back in the late 80's?

Nice retrospective! Love to see more on old school PC games that had a lot of entries in their respective series (Wizardry? Might and Magic?). Keep on rocking and don't forget to check out The Spoony One's retrospective on the Ultima series if you haven't already!

Great episode. I would love to see more stuff like this! It doesn't bother me that the episode is 20+ minutes, I think it almost better when going through a whole series. If possible, I would love to see an even more in-depth look at some of these older games, more gameplay and talking about graphics, sound, how the game plays etc

Thoroughly entertaining and informative stuff, MetalJesus & Carlos! Additional in-depth retrospectives on PC games and series you're versed in from BITD would be amazing, especially with all the packaging and other goodies from your collection(s) available for showcase. Cheers to your top quality 'n comprehensive coverage of a franchise you clearly both totally dig.

thanks for sharing -- loved the Ultima series - wish it had more of a modern age legacy!

Great to see CRPGs being covered, and in such length! How about doing Wizardry or Might and Magic next?

Everytime you do a retrospective video about an specific game saga it's so awesome!!

love the longer videos, would love to see more like these in the future

Started on Ultima V myself C64... So that was my favorite all time. U6 and U7 great memories as well.

I loved the boxed computer game designs, and the goodies that were included with them.

I really enjoyed this retrospective! Great job guys!

love your videos man, love your style, keep em coming

I dig these videos on PC games cause I've always been a console guy. This way I get to learn more about PC games that I never even touched outside of a handful(mainly the Myst series).

By far the greatest console-port of _Ultima IV_, however, was the Sega Master System version, which basically took the straight-up original PC game, updated the graphics, retained all the depth, music, and immersion of the PC version, and slightly tweaked the interface to make it "console-friendly." That's it, apart from changing the dungeon-layouts into a 2D mode from 3D. An amazingly-deep release, and while the NES version is good in its own way (though -- as you mention -- severely streamlined), the Master System version is probably the greatest version of _Ultima IV_ out there besides the PC edition itself. If you're looking to play a console version, that's the one to get (plus it even shipped with all of the various actual separate Origin rulebooks contained in the PC version -- _The History of Britannia_, _The Book of Mystic Wisdom_, the overworld map, etc.).

Great video MJR and Carlos. I would love to see more classic PC game videos for sure.

Thanks for this. Really brought me back to those days. Loved these games.

didn't notice it was a long video untill you mentioned it lol. good work.

The problem with Ultima IX is that it isn't what Richard Garriot wanted. It is what publishers dictated and that ruined the game. Several interviews about the game talk about this. Also Garriot is working on a spiritual successor of Ultima. Shroud of the Avatar.

AWESOME VIDEO. This is my favorite MJR video.

I love this historical journey into Ultima! Thank you!

Please, do a video on some of the TSR Gold Box games. I have a lot of fond memories playing these on the C64.

I wanna see more retro RPGs stuff.

You guys did awesome here, Carlos is a pretty cool guy... thanks for putting this together you two.

Loved the video. Great retrospective on a great series. I think more videos about these classic franchises (especially PC ;) ) would be awesome.

King Arthur: What is the greatest quality of knighthood? No poetry, just a simple answer. Merlin: Alright then. Truth! That's it, truth. When a man lies he murders some part of world. You should know that.

*ehem* It's "Akalabeth"...

Awesome video! I love watching Ultima retrospectives. I seriously missed out, as I only played The Black Gate on SNES. I had Ultima Online, but never got to play it. Maybe someday I can get to them, but not in the foreseeable future.

Thanks soooo much for telling me about GOG!!! I've been looking everywhere for a Quest for Glory series that would run on my modern PC! You friggin rule! Subscription earned.

The main issue with controls in Ultima 8 was that it was an isometric view, so you had to move your character diagonally, which sucked, especially when you had to perform a precise jump, of which there were many, in some parts. Add to that the fact that even on a high-end PC (for the time), it would run at maybe 8 to 10 fps, so... yeah. Horrible controls. Plus it put a lot more emphasis on the action/combat than on role playing, contrary to all the games in the series to this point. The pre-rendered sprites were pretty tho. :) Great video guys. I'd love to see more PC games from that era on here, so keep up the good work. :P

Am I the only one who actually loves Ultima 8 Pagan? That game is so special for me. People always say bad things about it. Yes, the jumping was hard OK we get it. Yes, it was rushed. Yes, it is another world but I find the dark setting to be very engaging and a break from Britania wasn't bad at all. Besides all the things people disliked, the game's technology was amazing. And it still is today from a programmer's perspective. We have games today that are much smaller and simpler than U8 and they still manage to run laggy on our present "next-gen" computers while U8 (and other Ultima games of course) simulated a vast world map with hunderds of entity interactions on the screen while running on a computer with a RAM of 8 megabytes and a 486 CPU.

Absolutely loved this video, please keep on reviewing old PC games! And I don't mind 30+ minutes videos at all!

Your sharing brings me back to my old times. Appreciated! 😉

Ultima online consumed a lot of my teenage years. Anybody still play that?

I really like you Metal Jesus. You are a very good person and i wish you all the best in life. Thank you for all your awesome video's.

Awesome... I used to watch my dad play all the classic games you could possibly think of on his old PC when I was very young. I have a lot of fond memories, and the Ultima series is definitely one that has stuck in my mind. Thanks for this video !!

@MetalJesusRocks Loved the episode! Please do more of these series!

I look at the TES series and often wonder where the Ultima series would if that black hole known as EA didn't exist.

I only got interested in computers and computer gaming because of Ulitma V, which I began playing in the summer of 1988! then I played the "Ultima Trilogy" and got on to the others in order of release, except for Ultima 6, I had an Apple IIGS at the time of its release and was very frustrated. when I dug into my pockets for a MSDOS machine I was blown away by Ultima VII!

I like the 25 min format for this type of video. A game series deserves a good chunk of time when you are passionate about it.

Richard's never been shy about how influential Time Bandits was to him.

Definitely more old skool games!

Please more videos about the wonderful old PC games

Loved this video! Takes me way back to my first Ultima game on NES and then my husband and I playing Ultima Online and raised our kids playing as well! We def knew where our teens were playing UO! Made some many life long friends. We actually live in Austin and have gotten to meet Richard In person!

Can't tell you guys hire awesome the time bandits reference was. Seriously made me have to dig up and find my old vhs of it.

what is a paladin?

gog.com is just an amazing site for anyone who wants to get into or loves old pc games. they even have lots of new stuff and indie games. amazing prices and bundles too. jeez, you would think i work in PR for them lol. im just a really happy customer.

Excellent video. Didn't felt long at all. In fact, I wished the video delved more into the Underworld series and Savage Lands as well. The discussion about the thematic depth of each game was fascinating too. Thank you, MetalJesusRocks Loved the previous retrospective on Quest for Glory as well.

Awesome! Loved watching this video and learning more about Ultima,RPG are my favorite genera.

Minor point, Iolo is pronounced, Yolo

Ultima 9 looks better than Two Worlds lol.

Always found it hard to find it any one that had nay interest in these growing up.and living in the uk made that alot harder and it's quite hard to find any one talk about it even in this youtube age we now live it so I was pleasantly surprised to see this appear on your channel, some awesome memories refreshed from this. Thank you both.

Well, having been a console kind of guy my entire life I would love to see more videos like this outlining older games I never had a chance to play!

Akalabeth is pronounced "Ah-kal-a-beth" There's no L infront of the K.

Old UO Player. Now Shroud of the Avatar player.

Great video! Very informative. Oh and yes, please make some more videos about old PC games (Sierra adventurs comes to mind)! :)

Great video. I loved Ultima 8. There was so much mischief you could get into. I suggest you do a Lands of Lore retrospective. One of my favourite games ever.

After the game Pagan came Christianity ba dum cha

guys maybe youve covered this before but with all the "remastered" games now a days how has NO ONE remade these games?

love this video thank you guys soooo muchhhh

Just found your video, the Ultima series is my favorite. Always glad to find more people the liked them

Ahh, Origin Systems. So sad how EA basically slaughtered them and crushed a lot of fans in the process.

i dont know why ppl hate U8 so much. it was effing EPIC. It was not 7, and that's fine. And i think that's why ppl hate it: they wanted another U7. To be honest, U7 is probably the very best RPG ever, but U8 is close to it (just different). A few weeks ago, I started playing Witcher 3 because i wanted that RPG feeling i hadnt had in yeas and ... meh... 3D seems to ruin it for me. I dont know why, but the isometric pixelated game looks and feel better. Also another epic game of that era is XCom, unlike the fake recent remakes... to note U7 and U8, i remember being AMAZED that you could drop a useless thing (say, a mushroom or ustencil) somewhere and you'd come back later in the game, after hours of play and it would STILL BE THERE! woaaa. back then, if you played most game like Super Mario something that went off screen just ceased to exist! so having a thing STAY exactly where you put it was so real and it added so much to the magic of a real world. Man i miss that game... in fact, Kikoskia re-started a let's play of U8... and it made me buy it a few minutes ago :-D at least i wont have to play it with a slow as molasses 386 (i remember saving a game took anywhere from 3 to 5 MINUTES, no kidding i remember timing it when i was young)

awesome work guys. you need to go deeper into each game. I know nothing about all these series although I'm SUPER interested on learning even more about'em, specifically about it's lore and music since there's not much to say about it's graphics but Ultima 9, wich looks amazing even for today standars. The fact Ultima series were available on nintendo consoles was breathtaking to me. I mean, I have a bunch of roms in my emulation programs and these jewels are probably there. They have been there the whole time just waiting to be re/discovered. Keep it up.

Great and very interesting video about Ultima series, thank you !

OOOooOOH it's so annoying! It's AKALABETH not ALKABETH! It's a game, not a battery!

Thanks for that walk down memory lane. Such fond memories of Ultima 3 on my Atari 800

That was pretty much your best video of all time.

Definitely still looking to see more of these type of videos

So many great memories, guys. Thanks for sharing! Well, if you could, It would be nice to see a retrospective on "Lost Vikings"

Great video! The whole series (excepting Martian Dreams and the console titles) was a mainstay for me during my childhood and teenage years, and I enjoyed the fond retrospect.

Awesome video, thanks a lot ! Cheers from France :)

Ah man thanks a lot for this vid! My favourite RPG series as a kid! Makes me want to play Ultima 7 again

Just came here from your recent Sierra video, and oddly enough, I am currently playing Ultima VII! I can see why it has a 5 star average on GOG; definitely a revolutionary game for its time!!

Great video, guys! Ahhh, you bring back such great memories for me. Your discussion touched on Wizardry and so it begged the question for me: did you play the Wizardry series, and if so, what did you think of it? I remember playing Wizardry I and 2 on the Apple II, and in spite of the crude graphics and the fact that it sometimes played more like a text adventure game, it marked the first true first person game and RPG I'd ever seen. BLEW MY MIND.

This was very well done. For something like this, I think it calls for a longer video to be able to cover all the sequels in the series. Not only is this video well done, but your entire channel is VERY well done from what I have seen. I never have played the series and yet I found this video very fun and entertaining. I accidentally stumbled upon the Metal Jesus Rocks Channel last week when trying to look up the best games to buy for the GameBoy Advance. I immediately subscribed after watching one or two videos. This is now my favorite channel on youtube. I love watching it. I originally majored in broadcasting/production so not only do you do a great job conveying ideas and reviews for art forms whether it be video games, music, etc., but you do it great in a visual way that is seamless when watching the video. I love your "man cave". It's awesome! You also have a great radio voice and you hardly ever studder or use the same lingo/catch phrases when talking in your videos which is difficult to do. You also get great guests who seem know their stuff depending on the subject (I have seen a handful so far). All I can say is, Metal Jesus Rocks! Continue the great work!

I always come back to watch this video before starting the next ultima game. Just starting 4 after beating 1 through 3. I never would have started playing them without this video.